Gary Ritchie has more than 30 years of experience in public safety, held a Gold Command for COP26, is a Visiting Professor at Napier University, and co-chaired the Cross-Sector Security Communications Group– a multi-sector collaboration aimed at providing live information to large national infrastructure and private institutions during major events and emergencies.

Gary joined Strathclyde Police in 1991 and held roles such as Chief Inspector Area Commander, Superintendent of the Local Policing Development and Support team, developing local divisional and subdivisional structures and community policing models for the new national service.  Following the establishment of Police Scotland he held command roles in Edinburgh and was Divisional Command of Dumfries and Galloway.

He was appointed Assistant Chief Constable in 2019 overseeing Operational Change and Resilience which included the rollout of mobile technology to all operational police officers in Scotland. He took up the directorate of Partnerships, Prevention and Community Wellbeing where he developed new public health led approaches in partnership with other public services to reduce and prevent harm and achieve better outcomes for communities and vulnerable people. 

As head of Drug Strategy, he compiled the first specific drug strategy for Police Scotland, shifting the emphasis from enforcement to harm reduction.  As part of this new approach, he led the roll out of Naloxone (Narcan) to police officers making Scotland the first nation in the world to equip all frontline police officers with nasal Naloxone. Since then Police Officers have regularly used Naloxone to treat overdose at the scene, helping to save hundreds of lives.

Recently Gary oversaw the Police Scotland Operational Support directorate which includes Events, Emergencies and Resilience Planning, Armed Policing, Public Order Policing, Marine Policing, as well as the Dog and Mounted Branches. He was the Chair of the Scottish Resilience Partnership, a multi-agency group formed to directly advise the First Minister of Scotland on matters relating to emergency and event preparedness and response.

During the Covid pandemic he was responsible for strategic partnerships, government liaison, information sharing and ensuring all officers were equipped with the necessary PPE.

He held a Gold Command role during the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow with his primary duties being media liaison and strategic partnerships.

He is currently a Visiting Professor at Napier University and sits on the Boards of Cranstoun (a charity focused on improving the lives of vulnerable people) and Cross-Sector Security Communications (a charity focused on providing live information to large public and private companies and institutions during major events or emergencies).

He is originally from the town of Ayr in the south-west of Scotland but now lives in Sydney with his wife and young family.